At the current moment I'm am in strong belief that on merits Mushfiqur would be added ahead of Mahmud. For Mahmud to be dropped would mean that going into the Champs Trophy he wouldn't be in the best XI...on top of that he's already retired and has done IMHO all he can for BD cricket.

So I say, if he's dropped now that's it for his career...so I would play him against Pakistan and if he fails don't pick him for the Champs Trophy...if he does well have a serious talk to him about his career and whether he thinks he can keep contributing

So I believe that Thursday's game will be the last for the countries highest wicket taker

I used to think chacha was just taking up a space in the team. But realistically, he doing as good as, or even better than his teammates. He usually gets couple of wickets and gets 20 odd runs down the order in almost every match. Considering that it would be really hard to drop him from the team.

When Masri/Sharif comes back for champ trophy, Mushfiq will have to fight for his slot against chacha. And at this point, I don't think Mushfiq is better than chacha.

Well Mahmud may be good as a first change bowler, but definitely not as an opener.

In order to do well in international cricket in the long run, however, we will require at least three pacers with decent speeds. Nowadays, most countries have three pacemen in their sides, all of who bowl pretty quick. Pakostan's Abdur Razzaq may be a first change bowler, but he's as fast as Tapash. He bowls at around 135 kph on a regular basis. India's Zaheer, Pathan and Balaji are all speedsters. So are the Australian quickies.

The point I'm trying to make here is that we need to bring in some quick bowlers to the side. Even our first change bolwer should be able to bowl at over 130 kph. Bowling at 110-115 kph gives you an extremely small margin of error, and quite ineffective at times.

Therefore, we need at least two bowlers who will trouble the opposition batsmen with pace, and a change bowler who will also have enough pace for the ball to carry to the keeper.

As I am making this post, all our top bowlers are injured. In the future, we should look for a good partner for Mashrafee, and someone who will be able to come in as first change, bowl fast and also bat a bit. It will be almost impossible for us to defend meagre totals without such a combination. Mahmud and Mushfique just don't have the speed.

Mushfiqur has not had a good post lately. Apparently, he smiles a lot ! But his place in the side should be judged on his batting and bowling.

Mushfiqur's one day E/R is 4.28. By far the best for any bowler having bowled at least 100 overs. The nearest being Rafique at 4.61. Razzaq and Rana's maybe better but once they play a few more matches, they will also go up. Mahmud's E/R is 5.02. In a 50-overs context, it is 214 vs. 251.

In batting, Mushfiqur's average is 16.05 [ nothing great ] but Mahmud's is 13.60 ! Mushfiqur's batting average is just below Ashraful and Bashar's. But Ashraful's will start to climb now.

I do not think Mushfiqur's place is indispensable, but he is clearly, at the moment, deserving of a place in the so-called "all-rounders" spot. None, by the way, pass my test. You have to command a place both as a bowler and as a batsman to be called an all-rounder. Tendulkar, therefore, is not an all-rounder. The expression has been abused to include "bits and pieces" players like Ronnie Irani, Ricky Clarke. England has hundreds of these. All, by and large, useless !

In test matches, I believe he is the ideal stock bowler which we need with our lack of firepower. When Chanderpaul and Sarwan were carving out that huge partnership, I noticed Bashar called up Mushfiqur to contain. He bowled in a very disciplined manner to a 7-2 field.

I think there should be a re-think about him.

Mahmud has served the country well and should be congratulated. But we are about to cross a threshold soon and a new generation should take over.

yes we simply can't afford to have bowlers bowling at a 115 kph in the team anymore. we should make sure that the batting of our up coming pacers is also looked at...we desperately need a first change bowler with good pace and batting abilities.

Originally posted by nasif
I used to think chacha was just taking up a space in the team. But realistically, he doing as good as, or even better than his teammates.

In my view... there is one serious problem we have to face always in case of Mahmud..
and that is not his ability!
It's the nervous breakdown that he nose-dives into every single time that the team is under some kind of stressful situation!

He does well in secured situations but gets completely messed up in tough one's! and this poor stress-handling capacity he has been showing since he was made captain!!

At times... this shakeyness of his really affects the coarse of the matches...
Even in the very last game.. Rajjak had to be brought to bowl very early and he had to be taken off!

I hav seen him on limitless occations scoring between 1 to 5 whn he comes to bat in difficult stages of the game... it's again the same prob... his poor reflex under stress!

even more irritatingly.. he allows one dot balls after another in slog overs.. causes the other batsman to stay at non-striking end.. often causes the other batsman's runout... that also shows his poor judgement as a batsman!

anyway... I don't really know if he has any kind of sense of self respect.. coz if he had so.. he would have retired with honor already..

as he will not be trunkated from the team yet (for 'understandable' reasons.. as we all know).. lets just hope he does a little bit better atleast!

How many time have we called for Chacha to be dropped and how many times has it happenned? Somehow or the other, he is here to stay regardless of how much the fans get upset. I think he will retire on his own time several years down the road.